


Hold Me

by Glitched_Fox



Category: SteamWorld Heist
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Introspection, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Game(s), sometimes you just gotta lay on top of ur friend, that's it! that's the entire fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:27:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25099888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitched_Fox/pseuds/Glitched_Fox
Summary: Piper likes to lay on the ground outside Lola's and watch the stars. It gives her a chance to think about... everything.Sometimes, she has an unexpected companion.
Relationships: Piper Faraday & Fen (SteamWorld)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Hold Me

**Author's Note:**

> i beat steamworld heist today and theres an exchanges thats like  
> piper: so what's your plan now that we've saved the universe?  
> fen: i want nothing more than to stay right where i am. by your side, captain  
> and that made me SOFT
> 
> uhhh these two are very intimate with each other but they are just. friends. platonic. i'm very intimate with my friends so this seems fine to me but yknow.

Piper had a lot of time to think, these days. It was a double-edged sword, really. She didn’t like thinking about her past, but that was fine. There were other things to think about. Like Gabriel’s quest for revenge, or Fen’s slowly returning memories, or…

Well. You know.

She found herself laying on the ground today, watching the stars, which wasn’t exactly a new thing. There was enough space outside Lola’s on the asteroid if you climbed around… rather precarious to get to, but once she got out here, it wasn’t too bad. 

It was nice. She could still hear the muffled music playing from the bar—the walls weren’t incredibly thick. 

_Now the war is passed and over…_  
_We’re left to sit and wonder…_

Hm. She’d never focused on that part of the song before.

What _were_ they meant to do now?

They didn’t have anyone to fight, they didn’t need to smuggle. They could explore Deep Space, but… cog, was the crew gonna split up? They all had different interests, so maybe that’d be for the best… Dora could find somewhere to study, and Ivanski wouldn’t have to struggle to find people to work for, and Piper… Piper could…

What could she do?

She didn’t want to leave her crew. They were her family at this point. There was nothing left to do together, but...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of movement—metal clicking against the stone ground, the hum of electricity. Before Piper could process it enough to sit up, a weight pinned her to the ground, foiling her plans. Static shocked her as an electrical charge jumped from silver plating to copper, but it was small enough she barely noticed. Though, it did confirm what—or, _who_ , the weight was.

“Fen?” she asked, attempting to twist her head to look at them. They’d pinned one of her arms, and one of _their_ arms was draped across her torso, so it was sort of difficult to move at all, much less prop herself up. 

“Sorry, Captain,” said Fen, muffled. They shifted suddenly. “Oh, I didn’t shock you, did I? Sorry.”

“Only a little bit,” she answered, honestly. It was fine. Fen had shocked her worse before.

“Ah.” They stopped wiggling, collapsing back against her. “Sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry.” She nudged them best she could and added, playfully, “That’s an order.”

“Sorry,” said Fen, and then, a moment later, “wait.”

Piper laughed. Fen buzzed softly in response, pressing their screen into her shoulder.

“What are you doing, anyway?” she asked, after a minute.

“You’re warm,” they explained. “‘S nice.”

“Right. You like the warmth, huh?” She picked up their claws in her free hand and carefully set them on her chest, over her furnace. Fen hummed. She didn’t usually register how cold Fen was, not unless someone commented on it, but the temperature always did seem to drop a few degrees near them. Vectron was just like that, apparently. “You doin’ okay?”

Fen buzzed wordlessly. Their antenna twitched against Piper’s chin.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” she said gently. Fen nodded slightly. “Got overwhelmed?” 

Fen shrugged. “I’m just a lil’ cold,” they said. Their voice was quieter than usual, interlaced with static. “An’ you sounded like you could use a friend right now, anyway.”

“Sounded?”

“Mmhm,” Fen hummed, unhelpfully. But they fell silent after that, so Piper decided not to push it. A conversation for later, like so many things with the amnesiac Voltbot.

She sighed and turned her attention back to the sky. The stars were surprisingly bright, even with the light from the bar. Fen was being careful to not block Piper’s vents, even though they were hovering close to a few, which was nice. In fact, the more Piper studied where she was in contact with them, she realized just how cautious Fen was being. Their scarf was tucked out of the way, and they’d arranged themself so that they were able to put most of their weight on their legs and free arm, no doubt to avoid crushing Piper’s arm. Their weight on her side wasn’t as heavy as it should have been. 

“Fen?”

Fen buzzed. The sound was even quieter this time. Were they falling asleep?

She adjusted her tone to match their vibe. “You don’t have to worry about crushing me. My plating is reinforced, and you’re not _that_ heavy.”

“I’m made of titanium,” they murmured, but shifted anyway to lay their weight more evenly. Piper took advantage of the movement to reach up and tuck her arm around theirs, pulling them close.

“You weren’t lying when you said you wanted to stay by my side, were you?” She tried to twist her tone to make it sound like a joke, but judging by Fen’s concerned static, they saw right through it.

“Of course, Captain.”

“Even if the rest of the crew left?”

Another small electrical shock jumped from Fen. “You saved me, Piper. You’re one of the few people who actually cared about me. And I don’t think the crew would ever leave. You’re their Captain. They love you just as much as I do.”

Piper opened her mouth to respond, then promptly shut it when she realized she didn’t have anything to say. 

The silence stretched, filled only by the muffled music from within the bar.

_You told me…_  
_You’d hold me…_  
_Hold me ‘til the mornin’ light…_

Fen shivered, despite having been still for the last few minutes. “Still cold?” Piper asked softly.

“‘N tired,” they admitted, “but I came over here to reassure _you_. Is it working?”

They were right; the pressure _was_ reassuring. “Yeah. Did you wanna go back to the ship? It’s warmer in there. You can sit by the furnace if you want.”

“No, I wanna stay here. With you.”

Oh.

Piper had nothing to worry about, did she? Fen was right. No matter what happened, no matter what she and her crew decided to do next… they’d do it together.

She hugged Fen a little tighter. “Alright, then. I’ll stay with you.”

“I know you will.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! <3


End file.
